Wrath & Glory Card Previews

One of the new features of Wrath & Glory, Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay is the addition of card decks to represent many of the random effects built into the game. While there are still random tables in the book for many of these effects, the use of cards enhances the experience greatly.

Let’s take a look at some specific card samples to show you what we mean.

Wrath

The Wrath Deck handles two things at once.

First, it is a direct replacement for the Critical Hit table. When you’re using the Wrath Deck for crits, the top card is revealed at the beginning of combat so that everyone can see what the next crit will be. This lets players spend Wrath for rerolls to help them get it more quickly if it looks very helpful, or it lets the card loom ominously over the combat as everyone wonders how long before that crit comes their way. As you can see, there’s also some great art and flavor text to help with visualizing the crit itself. (Note – Severity refers to greater effects that can be achieved with shifts or Glory expenditures.)

Second, the Wrath Deck is used for resolving Threatening Tasks. This is a special narrative mechanic that allows you to set scenes where the player characters need to accomplish something while under fire. The full explanation of how these work will be in the Core Rules, but the short version is that the symbols in the lower right connect to character keywords and indicate who can work towards resolving the Threatening Task on a given round.

Campaign

The Campaign Card Deck is the one deck that does not have a corresponding table in the rulebook. That’s because it is player-facing rather than randomized. Players draw from this deck and choose when to play their cards.

As you can see from this example, these cards typically have effects that are both good and bad. Most importantly, though, they tend to set up more interesting stories. And players can never complain that the game master is targeting them, because they did it to themselves.

Perils of the Warp

The Perils of the Warp Card Deck is specifically designed for the punishing effects psykers face when their powers go wrong. The table with which this deck corresponds is slightly larger because this is one of the few times a player might be rolling multiple Wrath Dice. To help simplify that process, this deck is subdivided based on how many Wrath Dice the psyker has rolled.

You may notice that rolling more Wrath Dice is not always good.

Combat Complications

Of the four decks, the Combat Complications deck is probably the most straightforward. That’s because the table it replaces is fairly simple. However, we can offer some additional specificity and randomization through the cards beyond what is listed in the table.

All of these decks are currently available as part of the All-In bundle on the Wrath & Glory pre-order page. Head there now!

18 thoughts on “Wrath & Glory Card Previews”

Cards huh? How will this work with online play, where players can’t draw cards, especially with the cards that have no random table to roll on? Is the game playable without cards, or are those of us who live out in the country and can’t get an IRL group together left out in the cold?

Will a PDF/Image version of the Campaign Cards be available for purchase, then? I play on Roll20 most of the time so I could make a deck there if the material is available, much like how the Book of Feasts for the King Arthur Pendragon game has a PDF of the feast cards when you buy it from DriveThruRPG.

I’m aware they’re optional, but I’d still like to use those mechanics if I’m able to.

Man, I am going to take my time before even thinking about using these in play. 1000 plates all spinning at once. In fact, after running Blessings Unheralded twice I’m already looking for where I can simplify.

Will the Bonus Promo cards ONLY be available with pre-order? All other bonus content seems to be available later down the road but I have not seen an answer to this anywhere. I am still planning a pre-sale purchase. But I am not a big fan of content that is promo only never to be seen again. Especially something that should be available to players. If their are going to be items like this are there going to continue to be limited time only card packs?